Deregulation of the electrical power industry has created competition among the various electrical utilities. However, while it is expected that such competition will eventually reduce the price of electricity, it has undesirably caused these electric utilities to reduce capital and maintenance spending in an effort to become more competitive. Particularly, such reduced maintenance spending has increased the number and length of power interruptions due to system and component failure, thereby causing the power to be unreliably provided.
Further, such reduced capital spending has prevented the creation of new electrical power generation facilities and together with the concomitant and relatively dramatic increase in electrical power consumption due to the growing use of computers and other devices and assemblies, has caused “blackouts” and interruptions due to consumption demands which far exceed the delivery capability of existing systems.
Attempts to address these difficulties include the use of diverse types of electrical generating systems which selectively provide power for individuals and/or small groups or communities in the event of such an interruption. While such “distributed generation” does reliably supplement the power provided by these utilities, it requires a relatively costly and complicated power conversion system which selectively converts the generated electrical power to a format which may be utilized by traditional and/or conventional devices.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved power conversion system which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of current power conversion systems.